Living artists

[21/06/2013]

 

Friday is Top day! Every other Friday, Artprice publishes a theme-based auction ranking. This week: the decade’s top 10 auction results for living artists.

Very few contemporary artists manage to break the $15 million barrier at auction. Indeed, this Top 10 spanning the whole of the last 10 years is made up of just 3 artists. The big name is German artist Gerhard Richter, who claims 6 of the top 10 places, and all of them very recently, between 2011 and 2013. He is followed by Jeff Koons, the only fifty-something in the ranking, who takes 3 places with sales of between $21 million and $30 million. With two American artists (Jeff Koons and Jasper Johns) and one European (Gerhard Richter), this Top 10 is a clear demonstration of some of the criteria that apply in today’s very high-end contemporary market: the artist’s nationality, the omnipotence of New York (7 of the top 10 sales) and London, and the dominance of male artists, who continue to generate more demand than their female counterparts.

Top 10 : the decade’s top 10 auction results for living artists.

Rank Artist Hammer Price Artwork Sale
1 Gerhard RICHTER $33000000 Domplatz, Mailand [Cathedral Square, Milan] (1968) 05/14/2013 (Sotheby’s NEW YORK NY)
2 Gerhard RICHTER $30445600 Abstraktes Bild 10/12/2012 (Sotheby’s LONDON)
3 Jeff KOONS $30000000 Tulips (1995-2004) 11/14/2012 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
4 Jasper JOHNS $25500000 Flag (1960-1966) 05/11/2010 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
5 Jeff KOONS $22947100 Balloon Flower (Magenta) (1995/2000) 06/30/2008 (Christie’s LONDON)
6 Jeff KOONS $21000000 Hanging Heart (Magenta/gold) (1994-2006) 11/14/2007 (Sotheby’s NEW YORK NY)
7 Gerhard RICHTER $19500000 Abstraktes Bild, Dunkel (613-2) (1986) 05/15/2013 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
8 Gerhard RICHTER $19400000 Abstraktes Bild (798-3) (1993) 05/08/2012 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
9 Gerhard RICHTER $18500000 Abstraktes Bild (1997) 11/09/2011 (Sotheby’s NEW YORK NY)
10 Gerhard RICHTER $17595230 Struktur (2) (1989) 06/27/2012 (Christie’s LONDON)

 

 

Gerhard Richter – A New record for a living artist
Domplatz, Mailand [Cathedral Square, Milan] (1968) is the top-selling work by a living artist over the last decade. Earlier this year, on 14 May 2013 to be precise, at a major auction of contemporary art held at Sotheby’s New York, this work sold for $33 million (or $37.125 million including buyer’s premium). This painting of the Cathedral Square in Milan is the work of Gerhard Richter (born 1932), a German artist now in his eighties who is known as the “Picasso of the 21st Century”. His sale prices have increased by over 300% over the last 10 years. Richter is the world’s most expensive living artist, with 26 sales recorded above $10 million since 2008. He has become a key indicator of the health of the high-end contemporary art market, to the extent that he alone can account for half the receipts at a major auction. This was certainly the case on 12 October 2012, thanks to his Abstraktes Bild. This large abstract, vibrant with deep blue and the colours of the sun, shattered its low estimate of £10 million and soared to £19 million, or $30.4 million excluding buyer’s premium (Sotheby’s London, $34.16 million including buyer’s premium).

Jasper Johns – An American emblem
A contemporary of Richter, Jasper Johns (born 1930) achieved his best result at auction with $25.5 million for Flag (1960-1966), sold on 11 May 2010 at Christie’s New York, and doubling its estimate ($28.6 million including buyer’s premium, 44.5 cm x 67.9 cm). This price was the reward for an emblematic work by Johns, and, more broadly, for a form of American art that was writing its own history back in the 1960s. MoMA owns an earlier version of this work from 1954 in a larger format (107.3 cm x 153.8 cm). With Flag, the object covers the whole surface of the canvas for the first time in the history of American avant-garde art. At the time, this absolute encounter between object, motif and work turned perceptions upside down and rocked the world of art criticism.
The appearance of such a piece in the sales rooms is so rare that it triggers intense competition between the world’s top museums, dealers and private collectors. Hence the elevated hammer price in comparison to its estimate. Demand for such works has clearly exploded. A Double Flag painted in 1962 cost 24 times less in the mid-1980s ($16 million on 11 November1986, Sotheby’s New York).

Jeff Koons – The Successor
At just 58 (born 1955), Koons holds an impressive auction record that already makes him one of the artists that has attracted the most speculative interest over the decade. His current record is not far behind that of Richter, with the $30 million achieved for his monumental sculpture Tulips (approx. 203 cm x 457 cm x 520 cm) in gleaming stainless steel, which went under the hammer at Christie’s on 14 November 2012. With this, Koons smashed his previous record of just under $7 million (Balloon Flower (Magenta), 30 June 2008, Christie’s London). Tulips is an immense bouquet of flowers in Pop Art colours that resembles a giant piece of candy. It was inspired by the colourful balloons that adorn birthdays and other celebrations and is part of the series entitled Celebration begun by Koons in 1994. The artist has produced 5 versions of this giant bouquet. The one sold in 2012 was the first version.
Since achieving his first million-dollar sale in 1999 (Pink Panther, ceramic sculpture, 104 cm x 52 cm, $1.65 million, 16 November 1999, Christie’s New York), Koons has been a strong competitor in the race to break records in the contemporary art market and to turn art into a luxury product – without the need for it to be a rare commodity.

The record sales of these three artists have all been set over the last three year, showing once again how the race for new records is brilliantly orchestrated by the auction houses and the most powerful buyers, despite the risk of extreme volatility in the contemporary art market.